Development of a Chest-Belt-Type Biosignal-Monitoring Wearable Platform System

The purpose of this study was to develop a wearable platform system that can detect and acquire a soldier’s biosignals (i.e., heart activity signal, respiration rate, etc.) in a nonrestrained, unconscious manner. These detected biosignals are transmitted to a processing device to analyze and monitor the soldier’s physical status. To achieve this, textile-based heart activity electrodes and a strain gauge sensor for the respiration signal measurement were developed, and their performances in detecting each signal were verified. These sensors were embedded in a chest belt to design a wearable platform that can simultaneously measure heart activity and respiration signals. The sensor part of the chest belt has a dual layer structure to detect high-quality signals. Stretch fabric was used on the outer layer and a respiration sensor was attached to the belt. On the inside layer, a non-stretch fabric was used as the base fabric and a heart activity-sensing electrode, that is capable of taking measurements using a modified lead-II heart activity signal induction method, was embroidered onto the fabric. Subjects were asked to wear the chest belt, and a biosignal processor module was attached to verify the system’s performance while simultaneously acquiring the heart activity and respiration signals. More specifically, it was confirmed that the two signals were detected in a stable. It is expected that the biosignal-monitoring wearable platform system developed in this study will be able to effectively analyze and monitor soldiers’ biosignals.